Amnesia: The Dark Descent (makers of Penumbra)

[entertainer]

http://fidgit.com/archives/2010/09/the_ ... sia_da.php

cool shit

 

[1eyedking]

Sound effects in this game were top notch, no doubt about that.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Codex fapping over a glorified pac-man.

 

[entertainer]

better than fapping over shit console shooters called rpgs

 

[Burning Bridges]

I played the demo, unfortunately horror is really not my genre.

But this is a very good game, no doubt.

Although I am not sure if it is better than the first Penumbra. The lack of puzzles was a bit dissappointing.

 

[A user named cat]

This game is actually pretty damn scary, at least when played in the right environment. Surround sound, volume cranked, after midnight, alone and in the dark. All the atmospheric sounds and dark environments really get into your head, plus the tension that mounts when you're low on lamp oil. So much so I caught myself looking away from the monitor a couple times and checking around the room to make sure it was just the game. Silent Hill 1 all over again, hell yes.

 

[Ulminati]

When I played the demo, a bug made the graphics glitch and turn upside-down. Contrasted to the silliness of walking around on the ceiling with all mouse movement being mirrored, it was kind of hard to take the game seriously enough to feel scared.

 

[Vibalist]

I'm too much of a wuss to ever play something like this, but I'm currently watching an LP on youtube and enjoying it a lot. The scarcity of monsters works tremendously in this games' favor as you get ten times more scared when they do appear. This game is fucking terrifying, even when you're just watching it. It's so well made and atmospheric.

Also, the music that plays in the area you enter after the part with the water monster is beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrPI0FAd ... re=related

 

[Ogg]

Great game indeed. I'm playing it right now.

Great mood setting, inspired sound design, decent puzzles, nice (though unoriginal) art style... But most of all I like the pace of the game. I didn't really feel scared at any peculiar moment but whenever I get to a relatively safe space, I realize that my heart is beating quite quite heavily. It's not a roller-coaster, mind you. They simply know how to build tension and stop when it's enough, like in a perfect torture session.

 

[laclongquan]

Is there a combination of ctrl alt and upward arrow to change the game screen?

 

[fizzelopeguss]

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/201 ... nesia.html

Devs prolly won't be around in a few years time.

 

[Phelot]

I like them as a company. They seem to be very honest and whoever does their blog isn't afraid of giving his opinion on other games even if they aren't always flattering.

I kind of hope they try something else this time. I mean a whole other genre. I'd love to see the same style we see in Amnesia and Penumbra except as an action RPG. I love their physics, even Amnesia's less then stellar physics seem better then most games.

If they do make another survival horror style game, It might be cool if it took place in a sci-fi setting this time.

All in all, I hope they manage to do OK. I don't know how long they'd be willing to survive like this. I'd imagine it's not fun stressing about your one game and praying it does extremely well which is exactly what most former great dev houses went through.

 

[aweigh]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/

trailer on that page shows some gameplay, good stuff! it'a first-person survival horror pseudo-indie pc game. i think it's out, anyone played it?

 

[Excommunicator]

I haven't but it interests me a lot. I am just a bit suspicious given that a lot of indie games have very little play time and not that much content (understandably of course). The reviews seem all good but I am not entirely convinced

Although from the look and sound of it, the engine would be great for a stealthy story-based RPG of a more substantial kind. Hopefully they license it out to someone for that purpose

 

[Lord Rocket]

I downloaded it illegitimately. It has heaps of atmosphere but not enough tension to keep me interested (enemies are easy to avoid and the puzzles are pretty simple, mostly just along the lines of look around until you find a 'switch', click on it, find the next 'switch' etc.). I quit after I reached some shitty jumping puzzle section - the bit where that invisible ghost thing eats you if you fall in the water, for those who have played it.
The sad thing is I really wanted to like this game - and maybe even pay for it - but I should have known I wouldn't after the message at the start exhorting you not to play the game in order to win, but rather to luxuriate in the atmosphere. Stinkus gameplay ahoy.

 

[Gragt]

We had a thread about it when the demo was released, shortly before the full game came out.

It certainly is good and has tons of atmosphere, but it's true that the puzzles are rather mundane and a step back from Black Plague's "natural" puzzles, i.e., they don't feel like puzzles. Enemies are rare and mostly let you explore freely but that makes their appearances more tense. Also nice is the sanity system that not only impairs your senses and controls but also allows enemies to spot you more easily; it really comes into play when you attempt to hide from an enemy but staying too long in the dark decreases your sanity.

I'm also leery of the way the devs are taking. Reading their blog they certainly put an emphasis on what they want their players to feel and experience and go the "games are art" way. It is somewhat commendable but it seems they aren't going the right way.

Anyway try the demo if you are interested. It's a nice game overall but it depends on what you seek. Kinda weird that many people were turned off by the short sequence where you have to jump on crates to stay out of the water; it wasn't the high point of the game but not terrible either, and in any case it was over after a few minutes.

 

[Excommunicator]

Penalised for staying in the dark in what is essentially a stealthy game? Isn't that like losing hitpoints every time you shoot an enemy in doom? Sounds like it would just encourage crappy impulsive non-thinking behaviour

 

[Gragt]

It's the opposite because not thinking will likely get you killed. You can stay in the dark a bit but take too long and you will become detectable, so you need to pick your hiding place wisely or avoid the monster. And if you think of running, it's a bad idea because that will instantly attract the horror and it can run faster than you can. It made things a bit more interesting than simply hide in a dark spot and wait for the thing to move away.

 

[poetic codex]

Being an aspiring designer myself, their blogs really intrigued me. I found that I had a lot of similar ideas. So while the designers of Amnesia have great ideas, the execution and implementation of said ideas were far from perfect, and that killed the game for me. :/ I eagerly anticipate what they will do next though.

One thing that killed the game for me was that camera system. I'm one of those unllucky gamers who suffer from serious motion sickness when it comes to first person cameras. The camera gets so wonky and wobbly at times that it made me want to throw up.

But aside from that, what I didn't like is that they were trying to force a reaction out of the player with the camera. It's like they have these bright neon lights, or cue cards,or a sledgehammer which says..."OK player, now you're supposed to scream !!! " or "OK player, now you're supposed to panic !!"

I don't agree with that. The player should be allowed to have their own reactions to a certain event in the game. They should not have a reaction forced out of them by twisting and turning the camera.

 

[Achilles]

Great game, if you have the money buy it. These guys deserve our support.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

I keep meaning to play it.

 

[Zed]

swedish indie, of course it's good.

 

[ecliptic]

Just bought directly from the developer for $10.

 

[Jaesun]

Great game, if you have the money buy it. These guys deserve our support.

 

[CrimHead]

I respect what the devs were trying to do here, but the game has virtually no challenge, and the story is quite a Lovecraftian cliche'. Also: the survival elements are not what they could have been, basically amounting to "conserve lamp oil."

I find fighting in survival horror to be, in fact, a lot scarier than running away. To run is what all of us want to do, but to be forced to fight, ala the Silent Hill games, well that goes against our natural instincts, and is thus infinitely scarier. The inability to fight additionally leads to some akward and frankly ridiculous scenarios--which would often pull me straight out of the game to examine how stupid my perdicament was. At one point I barracaded myself in a room full of tools-- saws, sickles, hammers, and the like. The door opened inward but was blocked on my side by about a dozen crates I had put there to prevent a lurking monster from entering. To my dismay the monster crashed through the door and the crates (which I had so carefully arranged and estimated to be about 20 pounds each) went tumbling down weightlessly. The monster stood in the doorway looking at me. I was forced to run by it and get hit instead of being able to use a saw to defend myself. Stupid.

There are only 3 enemies in the entire game, and only 2 of which you actually are able see. After a while I got used to seeing these same guys over and over, and was eventually unphased by their appearance.

An OK game. I loved the art and area design immensley though, so I will continue to support these guys in the future. 3/5 I guess, if only for the game's originality.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I dunno, to me, fighting is nowhere near as scary because you know it means you can kill whatever's threatening you - and if you just can't kill it, you pretty much don't have the option to fight, only the buttons to make it look like you do. Not being able to fight might lead to some artificial scenarios, but on the whole, it lends much better to an atmosphere of tension and vulnerability.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Have you played Haunting Ground Crimhead?

 

[CrimHead]

I dunno, to me, fighting is nowhere near as scary because you know it means you can kill whatever's threatening you - and if you just can't kill it, you pretty much don't have the option to fight, only the buttons to make it look like you do. Not being able to fight might lead to some artificial scenarios, but on the whole, it lends much better to an atmosphere of tension and vulnerability

I would have enjoyed the absence of fighting more if the developers gave you mechanics to play with besides trivial physics puzzles and scrounging for lamp oil (which I never found to be in short supply).

The game for me was balanced somewhere between an adventure game and a survival horror game, but didn't live up to the minimum standards set for either of them. I just didn't find the game very memorable. It lacked unique set pieces, feeling very samey all throughout. It's hard for me to elaborate further on something so unremarkable. Hiding didn't feel practical to me, as it caused you to lose alot of sanity. I understand that this creates an important dichotomy between balancing your sanity and staying alive, but the idea itself, that you lose sanity while being in the dark, is more than a little far fetched imo. That said, I did appreciate that even looking at the monsters caused you to lose sanity. A nice lovecraftian touch. Again, I appreciate the uniqueness of the game's design, but I didn't find it particularly fun.

Have you played Haunting Ground Crimhead?

No. Should I?